Jet Fuel Derived from Ethanol Now Eligible for Commercial Flights
ASTM Completes Revision of Standard Specification
On April 1, ASTM International added ethanol as an approved feedstock in ASTM D7566 Annex A5, the Standard Specification for Aviation Turbine Fuel Containing Synthesized Hydrocarbons for alcohol-to-jet synthetic paraffinic kerosene (ATJ-SPK). Jet fuel produced from ethanol by LanzaTech in accordance with the Annex A5 ATJ-SPK criteria completed all required aircraft and engine Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) testing and review. Following a review by the OEMs and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the ethanol-derived ATJ-SPK was fit for purpose for use on aircraft and engines, an ASTM Subcommittee D02.J on Aviation Fuel ballot was submitted to the ASTM membership for review (the “D02.J Ballot”). The D02.J Ballot passed all levels of ASTM technical scrutiny: ASTM D02.J subcommittee (November 8, 2017), ASTM D02 Main committee on Petroleum Products, Liquid Fuels, and Lubricants (March 18, 2018) and ASTM General Society Review (April 1, 2018). The fit for purpose determination was based on a Research Report led by LanzaTech and submitted to ASTM which contained detailed data measured on ethanol based ATJ produced using the technology originally developed by the Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) and scaled up by LanzaTech. The Research Report demonstrated that the LanzaTech-PNNL ATJ-SPK meets all fit-for-purpose properties required by ASTM D4054, the Standard Practice for Qualification and Approval of New Aviation Turbine Fuels and Fuel Additives, including when blended at the 50% level with conventional jet.
The revision of ASTM D7566 Annex A5 to increase the blend ratio of ATJ-SPK to 50% was also completed on April 1.
As a result, ASTM International will publish the revision of ASTM D7566 on its website (http://www.astm.org) in the coming months. LanzaTech’s ethanol based ATJ-SPK will be eligible for use as a blending component with standard Jet A/Jet A1 for commercial airline use in the United States and in most countries around the globe. Under the revised ASTM D7566 LanzaTech ATJ-SPK will be eligible to be used up to a 50% blend in conventional jet fuel for commercial flights.
Earlier this year, LanzaTech and PNNL passed the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contracted independent engineering validation for both gas to ethanol and ethanol to jet technologies, as part of a low carbon jet and diesel design and engineering project co-funded by the DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office under the Project Development for Pilot and Demonstration Scale Manufacturing of Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biopower (PD2B3) program. LanzaTech is now preparing a design and engineering package for an ATJ production facility implementing the LanzaTech-PNNL ethanol based ATJ-SPK pathway now accepted under ASTM D7566. The design will be for a facility that can produce 3 million gallons per year of ATJ blendstock and diesel using sustainable ethanol feedstocks from LanzaTech’s gas fermentation, which uses feedstocks such as industrial off gas, biomass wastes and residues, and unsorted, unrecyclable municipal solid waste, as well as ethanol from other sustainable sources. Because ethanol based ATJ-SPK can use ethanol produced from any feedstock, using any conversion technology, approval of ethanol in ASTM D7566 Annex A5, means that sustainable aviation fuel can be produced anywhere around the globe, from available environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable feedstocks in each region.